As enterprises face the challenge of managing a global workforce, live streaming video is becoming a must-have resource. By live-streaming employee meetings, training and executive presentations, companies can deliver their messages in a format that unites teams across borders and allows real-time interaction.

According to a recent white paper by Wainhouse Research, more than half of all organizations surveyed (51 percent) reported than they have implemented online video in employee training applications, with 47 percent using video for executive presentations.

To support this growing trend, we recently launched Ustream Align, the industry’s easiest and most scalable video platform with enterprise-grade security. Enterprise clients now have a secure tool designed specifically for their various internal communications needs.

Employee Interaction

Live streaming video allows enterprises to communicate in real time with employees around the globe — and not just for big events like annual town halls. Ustream client Zuora, for example, broadcasts its weekly meetings to employees across nine time zones. “Ustream has been a big part of helping us keep that small company feel,” notes Zuora Founder and CEO Tien Tzuo.

Training

Using streaming video for employee training allows enterprises to save thousands on travel, accommodations and facility rental fees. Unlike pre-recorded video, a live stream allows employees to have questions answered in real time, exchange ideas and even collaborate on solutions.

One organization making effective use of live video as an educational tool is online training destination CreativeLive. Each month, the company broadcasts up to 200 hours of live training sessions, attracting as many as 20,000 registrants for shorter trainings and 150,000 for multi-day events.

Executive Presentations

It takes more than an email to unite your team behind a mission. Streaming video enables CEOs and other top leaders to share their vision with employees in multiple locations using any device in real time, to answer questions, and to encourage discussion and debate.

As Ustream CEO Brad Hunstable recently noted, “Video, especially live, is a powerful medium to engage and communicate with a broad audience in a way that helps create a greater understanding and alignment with corporate goals.” By leveraging the power of live streaming video, enterprises can build a better-informed, better-trained and more highly engaged workforce that’s fully aligned with their goals for the future.

Forty years ago, the vast majority (83%) of a business’s market value was invested in tangible assets such as currency, equipment, land, and other property. Today, 84% of the market value of a business comes directly from its people:

their knowledge and skills

the services they provide

the products they build

the intellectual property they create

People represent the greatest investment and the largest expense of most organizations. Leaders must find and develop and retain the people they need, lead those people through the inevitable tough times that arise, and build an organization that is diverse and ready to meet the constant changes and challenges of the 21st Century. This is what keeps your CEO awake at night.

To be effective, today’s leaders must communicate effectively with the people they lead. No matter the worker’s age, education, or role within the organization, the more they know about the organization’s strategy, challenges, values, culture, and other attributes, the more engaged they are and the more they can contribute. Even more importantly, the more they WANT to contribute.